Terming as a 'big relief' the SIT clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gulbarga Society case, BJP on Tuesday said ten years of vilification against its leader should stop now.
"No evidence against Narendra Modi says the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court. A big relief for us. Ten years of vilification campaign must stop," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad that though the riots and deaths in Gujarat were unfortunate, Ahsan Jafri's wife Zakia's plea that Modi too should be prosecuted has been refuted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The BJP maintained that the riots could not be the bogey for targeting Modi.
Prasad emphasised that the SIT was appointed by the Supreme Court which had also monitored its investigation into the Gulbarga Society case from time to time.
"If media reports that the SIT found no prosecutable evidence against Modi are true, then we are very relieved as an international and national campaign against Modi to somehow frame him for the Gujarat riots was on for the last ten years," Prasad said. "Investigation cannot be continued on manufactured evidence," he said.
The BJP also said no riots had taken place in Gujarat in the last ten years and development in the state under Modi was unprecedented. Its growth story was being discussed globally, Prasad claimed.